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Monday kicks off the biggest week of earnings in the earnings quarter. Last week we got blowout earnings from Google, and some signs in the financial sector from JP Morgan and Citigroup. Even though earnings are going to be coming out, they will be taking a back seat to the focus of the US National debt ceiling and the debt issues in Europe. This is going to be hanging over the markets like a black cloud and because of that, there is not much that I am going to recommend buying because even in line earnings this week will most likely lead to sell offs. Regardless if their is a vote or not in Congress, there is a ton to learn from this week of earnings releases.

This week we will get to find out a lot more about the financials. Big banks like Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, US Bancorp and many regional banks all report. I am not recommending buying any of these stocks before their earnings because the whole sector is being treated like the plague. However, I do think as an investor in the market, you should listen to the conference calls in order to understand where the credit crisis stands and how the housing market is doing. I expect gloomy cautious comments coming out of these banks because of the housing market just not gaining traction and many of these banks still have thousands of foreclosed houses sitting on their balance sheets that have not even hit the open market yet. We also will hear from financials like Bank of New York, State Street, and Blackrock; which will tell us what is going on with mutual funds and if the retail investors are moving money in or out of their 401k funds to see where true sentiment is in the market place. American Express reports on Wednesday and this conference call along with Bank of America will let us know how consumers are doing with their personal credit card debt and hopefully defaults will be much less this quarter which would be a positive.

There are quite a few companies that will release earnings that will give us some insight into China and if they are still growing as rapidly as they have been the last few years. McDonald's, Coke and Pepsi will report which should have solid earnings since their footprints in China and Asia are growing rapidly. I expect the conference calls to be upbeat similar to Yum Brands last week and should have good guidance as well. On Tuesday we will hear from CSX, and I expect a big quarter out of them since the rails have been on fire because of China. Also on Tuesday Peabody Energy reports and this conference call will confirm that China is still importing a bunch of coal. Later in the week we will hear from Nucor in the steel sector, and Friday is Caterpillar which I see as having a huge quarter because of the emerging markets. China is building and importing materials quicker than they can be produced. This is a big positive for Caterpillar because they have the equipment to build the structures as well as the equipment to get the materials out of the ground!

The last major sector for the week is Technology. Monday kicks off with IBM announcing which will move the market and give us insight into the enterprise space which has been spending money again. Tuesday Apple, Riverbed technology, VM Ware, and Yahoo all report. Apple will most likely crush their estimates and have a conservative guidance as they always do and after their recent run up, I would not be surprised to see a breather taken in the stock price. They should give us insight into their new releases on the Iphone and Ipad which always are viewed as must haves. Wednesday brings earnings from Ebay, EMC, F5 Networks, Qualcomm and bellweather Intel. VM Ware and EMC will let us look at how The Cloud is progressing and Qualcomm and Intel will give us insight into the semiconductor sector. I personally think Qualcomm will have a good earnings release because of their leadership in the 4G space which is on fire. Thursday technology continues with Microsoft letting us know how their new acquisitions are doing. We also have more semiconductor names announcing with Skyworks Solutions, Sandisk, and Cirrus Logic. Once the market gets some traction and starts its upward path again, I love this space and think the semiconductors can be bought again.

There is a ton of companies announcing this week and I feel the week could be bumpy again due to debt ceiling talks being the focus but there is plenty of homework to do without buying any of these stocks. I am sure I will write more about some of these, but it is up to you as an investor to do your own due dilligence and listen to these conference calls. Making money does require work and this is a huge work week!